Pay rise following maternity

[Zazaz]

Pay rises are currently being done at work across all staff. I've been back at work 8 months. Mine is less than inflation, bearing in mind inflation increased massively when I was on maternity leave. I raised this with senior management and was told that they won't be taking that year into account for me because I "went off and had a baby and wasn't working".

So I am effectively in real terms worse off than before because inflation has increased but not my salary.

Is this discrimination - i.e. them not taking the year I was away for maternity into account when considering whether my salary matches inflation?

If so how can I put this to them?
Or is this normal and I should just suck it up?

Thanks in advance.

What does your contract say about salary increases?

I believe that whether or not it’s discrimination would be based on what everyone else received. If everyone else received inflationary salary increases and you didn’t BECAUSE you were on maternity leave, then yes that’s definitely discrimination because they’re treating you differently due to being on maternity.

However if as said above, the pay increases are discretionary only, and not for everyone, which seems may be the case as you mentioned that you had requested this.. This would mean that it’s not standard practice across the board, therefore I’m not so sure that would constitute as discrimination.

I don’t believe it would be discriminatory to not give you an inflationary raise, when it hasn’t been given to everyone else.

However, I’m sure it could be argued both ways though, and would recommend that you contact ACAS and/or Pregnant Then Screwed who will be able to provide you with specific advice based on all of the facts.

Good luck with this one OP, sorry you’re having to deal with this alongside everything else at the moment.

Thank you for your replies which have really helped.

So my understanding is that because pay rises at my work are discretionary, and it was only verbally said that they wouldn't take my maternity year into account and haven't written this down, I doubt I could claim that it's discrimination even though what they said in the review sounds like discrimination.

If they say it when I ask again I will ask them to clarify whether I'd have received the rise if I hadn't gone on maternity leave and see what they say. Then will follow up with email confirming the conversation. At least it's recorded then.

It's so shit isn't it!! On the one hand they praise me for how well I'm doing in my work yet they seem to have a real chip on their shoulder about women going on mat leave and so decide not to reward me for my work. I was amazed when they said that and am glad to hear that PP agree what they said was probably discrimination - even if I don't have proof it prepares me for future conversations with them.